6. A People for His Name— The Spirit and the People of God
6
A People for His Name—
The Spirit and the People of God
Based on the work of Christ, the Spirit calls forth a newly constituted people and makes them “a people for his name.”
A single person is sitting at home in front of the TV; a Christian broadcast is on, a sermon is preached, an invitation is given, and the person responds by “accepting Christ.” But the only “church” the person attends is by way of the TV, with no connection to a local body of believers. The question: Is this person saved? I would answer: Only God knows; but such salvation lies totally outside the New Testament frame of reference.
One of the sure members of the modern world’s “trinity,” along with relativism and secularism, is individualism. Recapturing the biblical sense of the significance of the individual, but revising it to fit a nonbiblical, naturalistic worldview, the Enlightenment led the modern Western world into a totally individualistic understanding of life, which has never been more prevalent than it is today. The individual is the be-all and end-all of everything; subservience of individual rights to the common good has become the new “heresy” to be rejected at all costs. The individual is god; narcissistic self-interest and self-centeredness is the chief end of life.
Unfortunately, in recognizing the biblical emphasis on the significance of the individual, North American Christianity in particular has also tended to buy into our cultural version of this emphasis. So much so that any hint of a return to the biblical emphasis on the people of God as a community of believers is often seen as a threat to our significance as individuals. Paul’s view is considerably different.
We have already noted that Paul’s understanding of salvation in Christ has both continuity and discontinuity with Paul’s Jewish heritage. Continuity, the concern of this chapter, resides in God’s still “saving a people for his name,” a people who fulfill the covenant with Abraham (Gen. 12:2–3). Discontinuity, the concern of the next chapter, lies in the fact that the people of God are no longer so on the basis of “nation,” but on the basis of individual entry through faith in Christ Jesus and the gift of the Spirit, signaled by baptism.
Paul can hardly help himself: his focus and concern are always on the people as a whole. Though entered individually, salvation is seldom if ever thought of simply as a one-on-one relationship with God. While such a relationship is included, to be sure, “to be saved” means especially to be joined to the people of God. In this sense, the third-century church father Cyprian had it right: there is no salvation outside the church, because God is saving a people for his name, not a miscellaneous, unconnected set of individuals. Thus our present concern is with the primary goal of salvation: an eschatological people, who together live the life of the future in the present age as they await the final consummation.
Paul and the People of God
Paul’s most common form of address to the recipients of his letters is “the saints.” This does not mean they are exceptional Christians, either in the sense of St. Patrick or St. Theresa or that of my Aunt Betty, who is a real saint. He is simply referring to all the people of God in a given city or region. By this designation Paul deliberately uses a term for God’s people from his Jewish heritage. The term “saints” refers to God’s “holy people”—chosen, redeemed, and now gathered before God at Sinai to fulfill his own purposes in the world (Exod. 19:5–6). The term is used again in the eschatological vision of Daniel 7:18 for “the saints of the Most High” who “will receive the kingdom and will possess it forever.” This vision Paul sees as fulfilled through Christ and the Spirit.
All of the language Paul uses to refer to the newly formed people of God thus derives from the Old Testament. They are God’s “people,” because they are God’s “elect.” Those who live by the rule of “neither circumcision nor uncircumcision,” and only those, are the “Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16). The most common designation is “the church” (ekklēsia), which Paul borrows from the Septuagint, which regularly uses ekklēsia to translate the Hebrew qāhāl, referring most often to the “congregation of Israel.” This abundant use of Old Testament “people” language makes clear that Paul saw the church not only in continuity with the old covenant people of God but also in the true succession of that people.
One of the essential features of this continuity is the corporate nature of God’s people. God chose, and made a covenant with, not individual Israelites but a people who would bear God’s name and be for God’s purposes. Although individual Israelites could forfeit their position in Israel, this never affected God’s design or purposes with the people as his people. This is true even when the majority failed and the people were reduced to a “remnant.” That remnant was still Israel—loved, chosen, and redeemed by God.
This is the consistent viewpoint of Paul as well. Although entered individually, the church as a whole is the object of God’s saving activity in Christ. God is choosing and saving a people for his name.
Perhaps nothing illustrates this point as vividly as two passages in 1 Corinthians (5:1–13; 6:1–11), where Paul speaks to rather flagrant sins of particular individuals. In both cases Paul aims his heaviest artillery not at the individual sinners but at the church for its failure to deal with these matters. In 5:1–13 the man is not even spoken to—he is simply to be put out—and his partner is not mentioned at all. Everything is directed at the church—for its arrogance on the one hand, and for its failure to act on the other.
So also in 6:1–11. In this case Paul does finally speak to the plaintiff (vv. 7–8a) and to the defendant (vv. 8b–11), but only after he has scored the church for allowing such a thing to happen at all among God’s eschatological community and then for failing to act. What is obviously at stake in these cases is the church itself, and its role as God’s redeemed and redemptive alternative to Corinth.
This concern for God’s saving a people for his glory is further demonstrated by the frequency of one of the most common but frequently overlooked words in Paul’s ethical exhortations: allēlōn (“one another/each other”). Everything is done allēlōn. They are members of one another (Rom. 12:5; Eph. 4:25), who are to build up one another (1 Thess. 5:11; Rom. 14:19), to care for one another (1 Cor. 12:25), to love one another (1 Thess. 3:12; 4:9; 2 Thess. 1:3; Rom. 13:8), to pursue one another’s good (1 Thess. 5:15), to bear with one another in love (Eph. 4:2), to bear one another’s burdens (Gal. 6:2), to be kind and compassionate and forgiving toward one another (Eph. 4:32; cf. Col. 3:13), to submit to one another (Eph. 5:21), to consider one another better than ourselves (Phil. 2:3; cf. Rom. 12:10), to be devoted to one another in love (Rom. 12:10), to live in harmony with one another (Rom. 12:16).
God is not just saving individuals and preparing them for heaven; rather, he is creating a people among whom he can live and who in their life together will reproduce God’s life and character. This view of salvation is consistent throughout Paul’s letters. It is demonstrated most clearly in his references to the Spirit, who plays the key role not only in forming the people of God but also in their life together and in their worship.
The Spirit and the Believing Community
We will note in the next chapters that the transforming, renewing work of the Spirit begins the individual’s life in Christ; the same is true of the believing community. The community of God’s people owe their life together as a body to their common, lavish experience of the Spirit. The question Paul answers in 1 Corinthians 12:13 is not how people become believers—although that is obviously involved—but how the many of them, composed of Jew and gentile, slave and free, make up the one body of Christ. Paul’s answer: All alike were immersed in the same reality, Spirit, and all alike were caused to drink to the fill of the same reality, Spirit, so as to form one body in Christ.
Likewise, in 2 Corinthians 3:1–3, Paul describes the believing community as “his letter of recommendation,” having become so because they were “written by the Spirit,” as it were. Again, although Paul uses different imagery, he makes the point that the Spirit is responsible for their having together become God’s people in Corinth.
Created and formed by the Spirit, the early communities thus became a fellowship of the Spirit. The concept of koinōnia (“fellowship”) is a broad one in Paul. It begins as fellowship with God through Christ (1 Cor. 1:9), which in turn brings believers into fellowship with one another. In the trinitarian benediction of 2 Corinthians 13:14, Paul chooses koinōnia to describe the ministry of the Spirit. Although this term refers chiefly to “a participation in the Spirit himself,” such participation is common to them all and thus also includes the “fellowship” created and sustained by the Spirit. So also in Philippians 2:1–4, part of the basis of his appeal to unity and harmony in verse 1 is their common participation (both Paul’s and theirs together) in the Spirit (cf. 1:27, “stand firm in one Spirit”). Likewise, common love brought about by the Spirit serves as the basis of an appeal to the Roman believers to support him with their prayers (Rom. 15:30; cf. Col. 1:8).
For Paul the fact that both Jews and gentiles are included in God’s family is the most remarkable aspect of this newly formed fellowship. In Christ’s death God has triumphed over the former prejudices on both sides (Eph. 2:14–18). Paul’s sense of wonder at this shines throughout Ephesians. Thus 1:13–14 is not first of all about individual conversions; rather, Paul is rejoicing because gentiles (“you also”) have been included in Christ along with Jews as God’s inheritance. This has been certified by the remarkable reality that they were given the promised Holy Spirit as seal and down payment of that inheritance.
This Spirit-forged unity is also the point of Ephesians 2:18. Just as Christ’s death made the “one body” a possibility by abolishing what divided Jew and gentile, so now through Christ both “have access to the Father in one Spirit.” Jews and gentiles have been formed by the Spirit into one body (cf. 4:4), and as they dwell together in the one Spirit they have common access as one people into the presence of God.
Paul’s Images for the Community of the Spirit
The centrality of the Spirit to Paul’s view of the believing community emerges especially in his three major images for the church (family, temple, body); the first two of these also reflect continuity with the Old Testament.
God’s Family
This image, which occurs explicitly only twice (Eph. 2:19; 1 Tim. 3:15; cf. 2 Cor. 6:18), flows naturally out of Paul’s reference to God as Father, believers as brothers and sisters, and the apostle as a household manager (see 1 Cor. 4:1–2). The imagery itself receives no elaboration. What is significant is the role of the Spirit, as both responsible for and evidence of believers’ becoming members of God’s family.
The imagery first appears in Galatians 4:4–6, where Paul contrasts living under law with the life of faith, life in the Spirit. Living under law is like being a son before he has come of age; he may technically own the whole estate, but he is still no better off than a slave. So with believers, who are no longer under slavery (including slavery to the “powers”); rather they are “sons” with full rights, the evidence of which is their experience of the Spirit, especially the Spirit’s cry from within them of “Abba, Father.”
The primary evidence that we are God’s “sons” is that the Spirit within us cries out in the very language of Jesus, the Son. This emphasis is heightened in the Romans parallel, where our ongoing recognition of our “sonship” is the result of “the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirits that we are the children of God.” To which Paul adds, “and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and fellow heirs with Christ.” The repeated use of adelphoi (“brothers and sisters”) in Paul and the rest of the New Testament to refer to “the saints” is also best explained on the basis of this Spirit-inspired cry to God in the language of Jesus.
God’s Temple
On this image, which four times refers to the church, see the discussion in chapter 2 above. It is particularly well suited to the Spirit, since it derives from the sanctuary (naos) in Jerusalem, the earthly dwelling of the living God. The Spirit among God’s newly formed people means that God has taken up his dwelling in the gathered community. The temple is formed by the Spirit; it is thus a habitation of the Spirit. Even though Paul transfers this imagery to the individual believer in 1 Corinthians 6:19, its repeated use for the community of believers indicates Paul’s primary emphasis.
Christ’s Body
With this imagery, which occurs several times in his letters, Paul essentially makes two points: the need for unity and for diversity in the believing community, both of which are the work of “the one and the same Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:11).
First, the imagery presupposes and argues for the unity of the people of God. That is the clear point of Ephesians 4. The church, composed of both Jew and gentile, forms one body (Eph. 2:16). The urgency of the appeal that begins with 4:1 and carries through to the end is that they “keep the unity that the Spirit has given them” (4:3). The basis for the appeal is God the Trinity as expressed in verses 4–6, which begin by placing the one body in the closest kind of association with the one Spirit. Furthermore, all the sins listed in verses 25–31 are sins of discord. By giving in to sin, they grieve the Holy Spirit (v. 30), who has formed them into a body and whose continuing presence is intended to bring the body to full maturity. Hence they need to “keep filled with the Spirit” (5:18) to ensure proper worship (vv. 19–20) and proper relationships (5:21–6:9).
Although Paul’s larger concern differs in 1 Corinthians 12:12–26, he still emphasizes the Corinthians’ unity in the Spirit. The earlier use of “body” imagery in 10:16–17 and 11:29, with reference to the bread of the Lord’s Table, had focused on their need for unity. When the imagery recurs in 12:12, unity and diversity are equally stressed. With two sentences (vv. 13 and 14) that begin with the same applicational signal (“for indeed”), Paul argues first that the many of them (Jew, gentile, slave, free) are one body because of their common lavish experience of the Spirit (v. 13). Following verse 14 and its application (vv. 15–20), both of which stress the diverse nature of the body, Paul urges in the second application (vv. 21–26) that there be no “division” among them. This especially recalls the various divisions mentioned throughout the letter. The Spirit has made them one body; true Spirituality will maintain that unity, whatever else.
Likewise in Philippi, where some bickering and posturing were going on that could lead to disunity, Paul urges his readers, especially in light of their struggle against pagan opponents, to “stand firm in the one Spirit” (1:27). This appeal is made on the basis of their common (his and their) participation in the Spirit (2:1).
Unity in the body means that believers “walk by the Spirit” so as not to “eat and devour one another” (Gal. 3:15–16); it also requires heterogeneous people to submit their diversity to the unifying work of the Spirit. Homogeneous churches lie totally outside Paul’s frame of reference. After all, such churches cannot maintain the unity of the Spirit that either Ephesians 2 and 4 or 1 Corinthians 12 call for. God by his Spirit has formed into one body a radically new eschatological fellowship that transcends both race (Jew and gentile) and socioeconomic status (slave and free).
Second, the Spirit is also responsible for maintaining a necessary and healthy diversity in the church. This is the basic concern of the argument in 1 Corinthians 12. The Corinthians’ extraordinary and imbalanced emphasis on tongues as the evidence of a fully developed spirituality requires theological correction (chaps. 12 and 13) before the specific abuse is corrected (chap. 14). Thus every paragraph in chapter 12 except for verses 21–26 has this theme—the need for diversity in order for the community to be built up. The triune God himself illustrates—and serves as the basis for—this diversity-in-unity (vv. 4–6); and the Spirit in particular is responsible for its being shown forth among them, especially in the many manifestations of his presence “given to each one for the common good” (vv. 7–11). A body cannot be only one part (v. 14); that would be a monstrosity (vv. 15–20). The Spirit who is responsible for their being one body is also the basis for the many parts necessary for the body to function at all.
Significantly, the body imagery in Ephesians, with its concern for unity, focuses primarily on relationships within the church. In 1 Corinthians 12, however, the focus is mainly on the church as a community gathered for worship, which is true also of the temple imagery in 3:16–17. This difference in focus is due to the respective errors that were taking place within the gathered community. The early believers did not have buildings called “churches”; they did not “go to church.” They were the church, and at appointed times and places they assembled as the church (1 Cor. 11:18). As God’s temple, inhabited by his Spirit, they formed a powerful fellowship, marked by works of the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:7), including miracles (Gal. 3:5) and prophetic utterances (1 Thess. 5:19–20; 1 Cor. 14:24–25; outsiders exclaim, “surely God is among you”). This emphasis on the gathered community serves as the essential background to Paul’s understanding of charismata (“gracious gifts”), especially in 1 Corinthians 12–14. We will explore these in more detail in chapters 13 and 14 below.
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In sum: “to be saved” in the Pauline view means to become part of the people of God, who by the Spirit are born into God’s family and therefore joined to one another as one body, whose gatherings in the Spirit form them into God’s temple. God is not simply saving diverse individuals and preparing them for heaven; rather, he is creating a people for his name, among whom God can dwell and who in their life together will reproduce God’s life and character in all its unity and diversity. How the people will live together and what they will look like is taken up in chapters 9 and 10 below.
Before that, we need to look at how “the saints” are now formed. What is new for Paul, and for the rest, is that the people of God are newly constituted by Christ and the Spirit; we enter that people one at a time. Such entry is, above everything else, also the work of the Spirit.
Reflection Questions